


Strawberries and Kale

by elmoon



Series: Sheith AU Week 2019 [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Artist Keith (Voltron), Barista Shiro (Voltron), Fluff, Gay Disaster Keith (Voltron), Gay Disaster Shiro (Voltron), Humor, Krolia is there for half a second, M/M, author attempts humor, so im gonna tag, teen for language and sexual jokes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-09 09:23:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20992484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elmoon/pseuds/elmoon
Summary: By now, he has the routine down pat. He’ll walk in, stare at the cute barista while waiting in line because by the time he leaves his appointment it’s the busiest time of the day. Once he gets up to the counter he’ll pretend to not know what he wants in order to spend more time in the presence of the masterpiece in front of him.





	Strawberries and Kale

**Author's Note:**

> this was meant to go up for day 2 of sheith AU week in MAY but here we are, five months late. i'm really happy with how this turned out though,

Keith enters the coffee shop the same way he does every week. He gets out of his therapy session with Dr. Coran and heads across the street towards Alchemic Coffee to wait for his mom to pick him up. By now, he has the routine down pat. He’ll walk in, stare at the cute barista while waiting in line because by the time he leaves his appointment it’s the busiest time of the day. Once he gets up to the counter he’ll pretend to not know what he wants in order to spend more time in the presence of the masterpiece in front of him. 

“What do you recommend this week, Shiro?” He tries to sound cool. He’s not sure if he pulls it off well. 

Tall, strong and handsome smiles at him, “Hi, Keith! I’ve been loving our Berry Green shake. It has spinach, banana, strawberry, and kale in it! It’s really good. I’d recommend pairing it with the new brownie recipe that Hunk came up with!”

His happiness is infectious. He’s the purest human being that Keith has ever encountered. The human equivalent of a golden retriever puppy. He would do anything to see Shiro’s smile. “That sounds great, Shiro. I’ll have that,” Keith hates strawberry and kale, but if buying a ‘Berry Green’ (Keith can feel his brain cringe at the stupid pun) will let him see those beautiful lips curve into a smile again, he’ll grit his teeth and drink the atrocious smoothie. 

He gets what he was after when Shiro smiles again. “Awesome!” His wallet cries when he’s told the total, but he couldn’t give less of a shit. Whoever hired Shiro as a cashier knew what the fuck they were doing, the man can sell anything with a simple look. Keith has seen it happen to others from his regular seat in the corner of the shop. He relates to their smitten looks and lingering stares, the way they dish out ten bucks on a drink without a second thought. If Shiro asked, he’d hand over his life savings for a damn cookie. 

“Please come again!” Shiro beams with a bow and Keith’s brain explodes.

“I think I just did,” is how he responds, consequently ending his own life as he immediately slaps a hand over his mouth and widens his eyes in shock of his own words. Shiro’s brown eyes mirror his own. Great, he just sexually harassed his crush. Life officially fucking over, he can never come back to this café or show his face in public ever again.

Before Shiro even has a chance to respond, Keith snatches up his disgusting drink and brownie and scurries off to his little corner to sit in his self-hatred for the next few hours before his mom gets here. And oh God, how is he going to explain to his mom that she can’t pick him up at the same cafe he’s gone to for months? She’ll have so many questions. Fuck. Hanging his head in shame, Keith takes a sip of the smoothie and cringes at the taste on his tongue.

He spends the next few hours on his laptop and phone, complaining to his friends and twitter followers about the fatal mistake his mouth just made. He gets responses left and right, ranging from a simple ‘holy shit, K’ to ‘wow only you could accidentally assault your crush.’ He tries to forget about it after that, focusing instead on working on a new piece of artwork for the show he’s currently obsessed with. It distracts him enough, trying to get one of the main character’s long blond hair to look less like a rat’s nest and more like a carefully tousled braid. He’s not sure he succeeds, but it’s good enough for now. When he just starts lining his piece, a shadow falls over his computer screen. 

God, he hopes it isn’t who he thinks it is—"Hi, Keith.”

Fuck. He looks up slowly, meeting brown eyes. He closes his own eyes slowly and sighs quietly. He opens his eyes up again and responds, “hi, Shiro.” He gestures to the seat in front of him, resigning himself to being told off and banned from the cafe. 

As Shiro is sitting down, he apologizes, “I’m so sorry about what I said. That was totally inappropriate and I’m sure you don’t want to be harassed in your workplace. You can ban me if you wanna, I totally understand. I don’t usually say shit like that, it just slipped out, I promise!”

“Keith—”

“It won’t ever happen again. Well, if you ban me it definitely won’t, but even if you don’t kick me out I promise that I’ll never say something like that to you again!”

“Keith—”

“Please don’t hate me, it was an honest mistake—”

“Keith!”

Shiro exclaiming his name knocks him out of his apology speech. When he looks back up at the god among men, he’s smiling fondly. Keith’s brain goes into confusion mode. “Yeah?”

“It’s okay. You don’t have to apologize for what you said,” Shiro says kindly like he doesn’t know how to not be nice about being harassed. 

“But—”

“No buts. It really is okay, Keith.” A soft hand lays itself over his own, stunning him into silence. “I thought it was funny,” a crooked grin appears on his face, effectively melting his heart. If he’s trying extra hard to look like a puppy, he is absolutely succeeding. Keith wants to ball him up in a blanket and take him home. God damn it, thoughts like that are what got him into this mess in the first place. Get it together, you horny idiot. 

“Are you just saying you thought it was funny to make me feel better about embarrassing the shit out of myself?” 

Shiro’s bun shakes as he laughs, “normally that would be the case. But since you’re cute and I have a crush on you, I thought it was pretty funny.” He ends his sentence with a wink and Keith feels his brain short-circuit.

“What?”

A giggle escapes Shiro’s glorious lips, fuck, “I know you heard me, Keith. Don’t make me confess to you twice. I figured it would be a good time for it considering I already made you come, but I’m starting to lose confidence here, babes.”

Every word the Adonis in front of him utters only makes his blood pressure rise. He’s so confused. “What is happening right now?”

“I’m trying to ask you out,” Shiro’s grin is slowly losing the cockiness it had when he has sauntered over. “Unless you don’t want me to? In that case, I’m more stupid than I thought I was.” He reaches to scratch the base of his neck sheepishly and bites his plump bottom lip. Keith wants to bite it for him. The thought seems to shake him out of his stupor. 

“You want to go out with me?” He feels his face flush. He thinks he might start giggling like a schoolgirl. Embarrassingly, he does. “You’re not messing with me right?” He can feel a shy smile start to grow on his face.

“No! Of course, I’m not, Keith. I really really want to take you out,” his mouth quirks back into that sultry smirk of his. Keith is going to die here in this café, be it by spontaneous combustion or busting the biggest nut of his life. Though once he thinks of it, those are pretty much the same. Either way, he’s sure that Shiro doesn’t want Keith’s bodily fluids all over him. Not yet anyway, if Keith plays his cards right. 

“God, yes. Please take me out,” Keith says, “either with a gun or on a date. I just embarrassed the fuck out of myself so I wouldn’t mind if it were the former.” His blood pressure is only just beginning to go down and his brain decides that this is a good time to flirt, “The choice is all yours, handsome.”

The increase of the pulse he feels in his fingertips is worth the blush that spreads from Shiro’s nose across his cheeks and to his big ears. Keith thinks they’re so cute. Everything about Shiro is adorable. 

“Oh! D-Definitely on a date! I would never want to shoot you, Keith. Maybe with a camera but never with a gun!” Shiro scrambles to correct himself, “but I would never take a picture of you without you knowing! That’s creepy. I’m not creepy, I promise!” He shoves his face in his palms, groaning in despair. 

“I didn’t think you were, Shiro,” Keith grins and reaches a hand over to rest gently on Shiro’s arm. “But just so you know, you have my permission to take my picture all you want,” he tugs on Shiro’s arm to make him show his face again, “as long as you take me out on that date.” He winks, surprised at his own confidence but refusing to let this opportunity to make the huge hunk in front of him blush slide away from him. 

“I—oh, okay,” Shiro offers him an awkward grin, his cheeks flushed a pretty scarlet. The color accentuates the jagged scar on his nose that crinkles up with his smile and Keith is reminded of the darkened slash on his own cheek. He wonders how Shiro got it, if it was similar to how Keith received his own; wonders if it brings back memories that make him cower into the sheets of his bed. Keith would gladly hold him in those moments and kiss away his hurt. He wonders if Shiro would let him. 

“So, a date, then?” Keith fiddles with the pen of his tablet and tilts his head. 

“Yes!” Shiro exclaims, then adjusts himself to a lower tone sheepishly, “yes, of course. I work most days, but I’m free on Tuesday mornings, Thursday nights and Saturdays.”

“I can do Tuesday mornings,” Keith forgets himself and takes a sip of his smoothie, and his body protests with a violent shake, “let’s go somewhere that doesn’t involve kale or strawberry though.”

Shiro’s face scrunches up adorably, “what? Do you not like them? Why’d you order the Berry Green if you don’t like strawberries and kale?” He reaches over to take the offending drink from Keith’s outstretched hand, “I told you what it had in it, didn’t I?” He looks confused and Keith’s heart clenches with guilt.

“You always seem so happy when I order what you recommend, I couldn’t help it.” He feels like a stupid teenager who would do anything for their crush. And, he supposes, he is, if someone were to consider a twenty-two year old to be a teen. “I’d come in and you would smile at me and I felt compelled to do whatever I could to keep that smile on your face. Even if that meant drinking things that I’d rather pour down the—”

He cuts himself off quickly when he feels liquid spray onto his face. “What—” He looks up to see Shiro’s surprised face covered in the same green fluid he guesses is on his own and is spread all over the table and their clothes. “Did you just—?” A glance towards Shiro’s hand confirms his suspicions. The smoothie cup in his hand is crumpled and empty.

“Keith, that is the cutest thing anyone has ever said to me. You have to marry me.”

“What?”

“_Shirogane!_"

Their heads both snap towards the counter of the café where an angry-looking man stands. “I let you take an extra break and you make a mess? Clean up and get back to work. _ Now_.”

“Yes, sir!” Shiro squeaks and jumps up from his seat. He’s halfway to the counter when he remembers Keith. He spins around quickly and walks back, taking Keith’s tablet pen from him and writing a ten-digit number over the entirety of his drawing. “Call me and we can set up a date. Also, sorry about the mess.” He presses a quick kiss to Keith’s cheek and then he’s gone. 

“What just happened…” 

“I’m wondering the same thing, dear.” His mom. Oh fuck. “But I’m sure you’ll fill me in on the way home.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

**Author's Note:**

> come chat with me on twitter (@ sheithcuddles)  
i'm always looking for people to talk about sheith with. thanks for reading!


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